Rhea K. Farberman, APR

APA's Executive Director for Public and Member Communications

Rhea Farberman is the executive director for Public and Member Communications at the American Psychological Association. In her position she directs the association's public affairs and media relations programs, serves as the association’s national spokesperson, runs its in-house publications department and is the executive editor of The Monitor on Psychology, APA's monthly newsmagazine and gradPSYCH, the association’s quarterly magazine for psychology graduate students.

In addition, Farberman oversees design, user experience and content management for APA’s website APA.org. In 2009, a total redesign of the website was launched to much acclaim. The rebuilt site won four awards including an Association Media and Publishing Silver Excel Award and two Communicator Awards from the International Academy of Visual Arts. The APA website consists of more than 20,000 documents and is visited by approximately 15 million site users annually.

The Public and Member Communications Office also manages APA’s presence on social networking platforms such as Facebook and manages the Association’s member recruitment and retention programs.

Farberman has written extensively on the relationship between the news media and the health and science professions, including chapters in the "Handbook on Communicating and Disseminating Behavioral Science" (Sage, 2007), and "Crisis Communications in Healthcare" (Washington Business Information, 2001).

Farberman directed the 2001 launch of APA’s national violence prevention campaign, including public service ads built around the tag — What a Child Learns About Violence A Child Learns For Life. In 1997, Farberman and APA won a Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) Silver Anvil award for Talk to Someone Who Can Help, a public education campaign designed to increase the public's awareness of the value of psychological services.

Prior to joining APA, Farberman was a self-employed consultant working primarily on federal public information and education projects including the 1990 Census, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services health education and prevention programs, and White House Conferences and Councils.

An accredited member of the PRSA, Farberman has served on the Board of Directors of PRSA's health care academy. She is an honors graduate of The American University's School of Communications and completed graduate studies in public relations and publications management at The George Washington University.